"The Bible" History Channel's New 5-Part Miniseries

"Survivor" producer Mark Burnett and "Touched By An Angel" leading lady Roma Downey are a little more than a month away from releasing their spiritual epic series "The Bible" on the History Channel.

The 5-part series will cover highlights of the Bible from the book of Genesis to Revelation. The inaugural episode is set to air March 3^rd of this year, concluding on Easter Sunday. 2 hours an episode.

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This isn't the first time someone has tried to compress the entire story of Christianity into a viewer-friendly format. In 1966 Fox released The Bible: In The Beginning, to little success. One of Charlton Heston's most famous roles was Moses in The Ten Commandments. Pre-tabloid lunatic Mel Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ, which starred Jim Caviezel as Jesus during his last days on Earth.

The surprising part isn't someone trying to capitalize on the Christian market, instead I'm more puzzled by why it's Mark Burnett. This is the same man that produced Sarah Palin's Alaska, which tanked on TLC.

Where Burnett may seem like the industrial L.A. type only in it for the bottom line, Roma Downer seems a little more spiritually connected to the project.

She told online entertainment site TheBlaze after a 90 minute screening of "The Bible" late last year: "We really felt called to do this. [It] just kept tugging at our hearts," Downey told reporters, later adding, "We really felt God's hand there with us."

In March we'll find out if viewers are engaged by the seeming exploitative topic or if the show destroys History Channel similar to Sarah Palin single-handedly ruining McCain's chances at 2012 election.

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